Long-time players of Star Wars: The Old Republic: In the next update 5.2: The War for Iokath, you will finally be able to switch factions. Insert disco horn here.

That's right: If you are a Republic character, you will finally be able to fight alongside the best people in the universe: the Sith Empire. And if you're a traitor to the Empress, you can fight alongside the Galactic Republic.

I also wanted to amplify another announcement about a couple of long-awaited companions. Republic Troopers, you will finally get your love interest Elara Dorne back, and Sith Warriors, you will finally be able to Force choke Malavai Quinn again, just as you always wanted.

“Aside from just being improved aesthetically, it also provides new functionality,” he writes. “We really wanted to improve players’ ability to travel around the galaxy.” You’re gonna need a ship, of course, and legacy perks will help:

“If you’ve acquired the Quick Travel perk, you can travel directly to your personal ship from the Galaxy Map. If you have a Priority Transport/Planetary perks, you will have a zero credit cost to travel to that location from the Galaxy Map. The Priority Transport perks function the same, but they no longer have a cooldown. Allowing you to travel quickly to different locations. You can now use Quick Travel while located inside ship hangers.”

April 14, 201712 commentsPlay SWTOR for free
Over at BioWare, the frisky employees have tagged in a new producer to handle the title. The result is that Ben Irving is out and Keith Kanneg is in as the new Star Wars: The Old Republic game producer. Kanneg announced the changeover yesterday in his first producer’s letter, saying that Irving has moved to “a great new opportunity” in the company while Kanneg himself moved up from his previous job as director of live services.SWTOR’s newest producer gave out his professional and gamer cred résumé: “I’ve been with BioWare/EA and SWTOR for the past six years, where I’ve held a variety of positions, and have always been a very active player with nearly 10,000 hours of gameplay, 28 plus characters and tons of achievements.”Read more

April 16, 20175 commentsPlay SWTOR for free
Now that we’ve watched The Last Jedi teaser trailer a few hundred times and steeled ourselves for a potential Death Star Number 4, SWTOR would like to interest you in its own superweapon. When Update 5.2: The War for Iokath releases next week, players are going to work to uncover the truths behind the machine-dominated planet and its terrible, horrible, no-good, very bad secret. The team put out a dev diary that outlines some of the activities available for players on this new planet. The devs say that players will be able to make a difference on the future of the game’s storyline: “You’ll need to make the ultimate choice between Republic and Empire, a decision that will impact the fate of Iokath and the greater galaxy. As the Alliance Commander, depending on your choice you will join forces with former Companions Malavai Quinn or Elara Dorne. Together you’ll fight to decide who will be victorious and claim the superweapons power.”Read more

Massively OP’s Larry and MJ have reached a major culminating part of the story in the SWTOR Choose My Alignment adventure — the end of Knights of the Fallen Empire’s first act. The duo are on the way to talk to the Scion of Zakuul, Heska. How will things unfold? That all depends on you, the viewer! Join us live at 2:00 p.m. to direct the choices during this act one conclusion. What:Star Wars: The Old RepublicWho: Larry Everett & MJ GuthrieWhen: 2:00 p.m. EDT on Wednesday, April 19th, 2017Read more

The public can view and vote for whichever short film they think is the best, so obviously SWTORwould appreciate your help in propelling it to the top.

The trailer, created by Blur and directed by Dave Wilson, was released to promote last fall’s expansion. It shows the backstory of a powerful Force-using family and the separate paths that certain members took over the course of their lives. Also, it has a girl Force-crushing an armored soldier like he was a soda can, so that’s pretty awesome.

If you need a refresher on the trailer in question, we’ve got it for you after the break.Read more

Massively OP’s Larry and MJ wrapped up KOTFE’s Chapter VIII and are charging right into Chapter IX as their Choose My Alignment adventure continues in SWTOR. First up: Meet with some of the new alliance members that will be helping to take down the Eternal Throne. Join us live at 2:00 p.m. to make any of those important decisions that come along. As a bonus, thanks to a donation by Sray, the duo will be giving away one SWTOR digital starter pack so someone new can also dive in and start checking out the Knights of the Fallen Empire for themselves. What:Star Wars: The Old RepublicWho: Larry Everett & MJ GuthrieWhen: 2:00 p.m. EDT on Wednesday, May 10th, 2017
Enjoy the show!Read more

After meeting with the rest of the alliance and building up the base, Massively OP’s Larry and MJ are set to do some tasks for the various members. First up: Dr. Oggurobb. What kind of mischief will working with this common-speaking Hutt bring? That depends on what you, the viewer, decide in regard to our choices. Join us live at 2:00 p.m. for your chance to sway the direction of the adventure in this latest installment of Choose My Alignment. What:Star Wars: The Old RepublicWho: Larry Everett & MJ GuthrieWhen: 2:00 p.m. EDT on Wednesday, May 24th, 2017Read more

It’s not the biggest patch in the world, but it does reactivate the popular Nar Shaddaa nightlife event.

Player gamblers are invited to descend upon the neon-tinted planet for some lighthearted gambling for some new rewards, such as the Gamorrean Guard companion. The event will keep the good times rolling through August.

The patch includes a few new legacy perks, such as higher tiers of speeder piloting and a command XP booster (yes, CXP is still a thing). You also can use crew missions to increase a companion’s influence, customize Shae Vizla and Theron Shan, and craft tier 4 gear. That should keep you busy for at least an hour or so!Read more

Last time in SWTOR’s Choose My Alignment adventures, the audience made a big decision that will influence the story going forward. What choices will it have to make today as Massively OP’s Larry and MJ continue building up the resistance? It all starts off with a nice little chat with Lana Beniko (good thing MJ on her good side, eh?). Tune in live at 2:00 p.m. to continue deciding the fate of the Chiss Agent as KOTFE’s Chapter IX continues in… What:Star Wars: The Old RepublicWho: Larry Everett & MJ GuthrieWhen: 2:00 p.m. EDT on Wednesday, June 14th, 2017Read more

Feedback is important for every MMO, and that includes Star Wars: The Old Republic. But where does feedback come from? If the developers never ask you about your opinion specifically, how will they actually collect your feedback?

The official forums and Reddit, for example, offer the feedback of particular narrows slices of the game with a big time investment; Twitter, meanwhile, has much more breadth of feedback but less depth on individual issues.

There are also focus groups and specific influential players courted by the development team just for feedback and information. Check out the full rundown if you’re curious about how the melange of feedback gets passed along to developers; this isn’t necessarily how every game does it, but it is how it happens for SWTOR.Read more

There is a grave disturbance in the Force, as if… a Star Wars: The Old Republic spec is overpowered and in dire need of a nerf. Only BioWare was prophecied to bring the balance to the classes.

The studio announced on the forums that it has reduced the damage to two mirrored classes, bringing the Assault Trooper and Ordnance Expert DPS down by nerfing both burst damage and periodic damage.Read more

Engineer Snipers and Saboteur Gunslingers are getting tuned down a bit in the next major patch for Star Wars: The Old Republic. The official post on the matter states the reasoning pretty simply: The spec was swimming in energy and was dealing more damage than intended, so damage on both Plasma Probe/Incendiary Grenade and Electrified Railgun/Blazing Speed was tuned down while the number of Cluster Bombs/Contingency Charges generated were also tuned down. It shouldn’t cripple the playstyle, but it should make for a more balanced level of DPS. On the bright side, players will get a mild quality of life buff by adding Quickdraw/Takedown to the list of abilities which add or extend the duration of Electrified Railgun/Blazing Speed, thus avoiding some uncomfortable bits of the spec rotation. No one likes being made weaker, obviously, but hopefully the change won’t be seen as the worst thing ever by dedicated players.

Is there anything more dread-inducing for an MMORPG player than hearing that massive class changes are incoming? You never know if you’re going to come out of such an event unscathed, buffed, or nerfed to the ground.Read more

SWTOR just introduced a new stronghold, and this one will help Massively OP’s Larry and MJ cool off a bit in the summer heat. Well, it could if it were real! Manaan, the home of the Selith, is a water planet, and the duo will be diving in to show it off.Read more

Responding to a question about one of the newer currencies in the game, Game Producer Keith Kanneg let it slip that the team is going to change how currency works so that you’ll be able to save some money between characters and pool resources.Read more

If next Monday is Eclipse Day in North America, is it OK if we deem Tuesday to be Star Wars On A Train Day? Because you know that when Star Wars: The Old Republic’sUpdate 5.4 arrives on August 22nd, you won’t be able to think over the noise of millions of players shouting “WHEEE!” as they set up shop in a high tech, high velocity mobile housing.Read more

August 25,2017 7 comments
I questioned BioWare‘s delay of the latest update for Star Wars: The Old Republic. According to a post on the official forums, the team decided to delay the launch of Crisis on Umbara because of a bug that could “prevent a substantial amount of gameplay when a player experiences it, from not playing the intro cinematic to not allowing re-entry into the instance.”

Before reading the explanation, I joked to friends about the delay, saying that something must have happened to break the cash shop, otherwise, BioWare would never delay an update. It would just be released and fix it later in a patch.Read more

Ootini! With Game Update 5.5 moved to October, Star Wars: The Old Republic players have a little more time to prepare for some of the changes to come — including additional class build adjustments. Yes, the developers aren’t quite finished monkeying around with disciplines in the MMO.

Snipers and Gunslingers are going to be getting a slight nerf to their honed shots talent. The devs said that the marksmanship and sharpshooter builds were “slightly overperforming,” and so this tweak should bring DPS in line.Read more